Nutritive Value of Three-Stage Olive Cake (Olea europaea L.) for Growing Rabbit

Nutritive Value of Three-Stage Olive Cake (Olea europaea L.) for Growing Rabbit. 4. International Conference on Animal nutrition and disease

EFFECTS OF DIETARY PROTEIN CONTENT ON THE PRODUCTIVE AND REPRODUCTIVE PERFORMANCE OF UNSELECTED RABBIT DOES AND THEIR LITTERS DURING FIRST TWO LACTATIONS

peer reviewedThe aim of the present study was to evaluate the influence of different dietary protein levels on the productive performance of unselected rabbit does and their litters during their first two lactations. For this purpose, fifty-two nulliparous rabbit does, 4.5 months of age and live weight of 3115 ± 71 g, were divided into three groups (17 or 18 females per group), kept in individual cages and each group received only one of the three experimental diets. These diets were iso-energetic (10.8 MJ DE/kg), but with increasing levels of crude protein (CP): 15%, 17% and 19 % for the low (L), medium (M) or high (H) diets, respectively. Breeding was carried out by natural copulation using 6 males of 5-6 months of age and 2865±21 g initial weight, controlled semi-intensive lactation and weaning at 35 days after birth. Female body weight, feed intake, milk production, litter size and weight were monitored at birth and weekly after parturition during the first two lactations. The protein intake of the rabbits increased with the amount of protein in the diet (L vs. M: +12.2%; L vs. H: +18.8%; p < 0.001), without any effect on milk production and feed intake. Milk production was unaffected by parity. Throughout the pre-weaning period, litter size and weight and maternal mortality were unaffected by dietary protein level. Dietary protein level had no effect on live weight, birth to weaning weight gain, milk production or feed intake during the first two consecutive lactations of rabbit does

Nutritive value of two types of olive cake (Olea europaea l.) for growing rabbit

[EN] The nutritive value of 2 types of sun-dried olive cake (OC), extracted traditionally (COC) or with a 3-phase olive cake (TPOC), was studied for the growing rabbit. Four diets containing 10 or 20% of COC (COC10 and COC20) or of TPOC (TPOC10 and TPOC20) in substitution for a basal diet were compared to a control diet without OC (OC0). Five groups of 12 rabbits were fed one of the 5 diets ad libitum from weaning (35 d) to 46 d of age. The faecal digestibility was individually measured between 42 and 46 d of age. COC and TPOC are high fibre and lignin sources, with 707 and 787 g/kg dry matter (DM) of neutral detergent fibre, 530 and 554 g/kg DM of acid detergent fibre, 242 and 243 g/kg DM of acid detergent lignin, respectively. Replacing 20% of basal diet by COC sharply reduced (P<0.001) the digestibility of energy and crude protein from 0.67 to 0.54, but that of protein only moderately (from 0.80 to 0.76). The same effect was observed with the incorporation of 20% of TPOC. The digestible energy (DE) content of COC and TPOC were calculated by regression and were 3.24±0.41 and 2.94±0.52 MJ DE/kg DM respectively, corresponding to an apparent faecal digestibility of the gross energy of 0.14 (COC) and 0.13 (TPOC). The apparent faecal digestibility of the crude protein of COC was 7 units higher than TPOC (0.44 vs. 0.37) and the digestible protein (DP) content was 20% higher (27.9±4.2 g vs.22.4±6 g DP/kg DM). Olive cake could be considered as a high fibre source with a low protein and energy content for the growing rabbit. This work was partially financed by the CMEP/Tassili project N°13MDU883. Dorbane, Z.; Kadi, SA.; Boudouma, D.; Gater-Belaid, N.; Bannelier, C.; Berchiche, M.; Gidenne, T. (2019). Nutritive value of two types of olive cake (Olea europaea l.) for growing rabbit. World Rabbit Science. 27(2):69-75. https://doi.org/10.4995/wrs.2019.11499 69 75 27